It was lovely to see old friends, and family; the sheer number of people that turned up was immense. Hundreds and hundreds. There were some lovely eulogies given, and not much crying to be heard. A few sniffles; but lots of big grins as those that attended were dragged back through memory lane to remember the deceased.

Tomorrow’s the funeral proper. I have to wear a skull cap (kippah, yarmulke). I’m a bit excited! I’m wondering if they hand them out at the door: ‘Please, take a skull cap. Smoked salmon’s on the left as you go in. Don’t forget to cry a bit, and mutter in Yiddish when it’s appropriate.’

I kid, I kid…

Anyway, I had to shave today, as a half-beard just ‘wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s day and age’ (gotta love my mother). I didn’t ask her when it would’ve been acceptable…”Back in my day’ would be the answer, I imagine.

Being the camera whore that I am, I requisitioned a new set of photos to comemorate my new beardless — but still stubbly — visage. As my friend Daniel put it: ‘You look about 10 years younger… about 24…’

Just a small variety of the poses I will assume when a camera is pointed at me.

Below is the ‘Oh my, is that really Jesus? He’s early!’ look.

Are we thinking: a) better with beard, b) stubble is good or c) remove the stubble? (Not that I’ll actually listen to your opinions, but my mum always told me it was good to at least pretend that I care)

Woaaah, easy on! But yeah… it sprung up when I left school to go to college… Really I only had the full goatee when I arrived at university (my student ID picture is actually one of my favourites!)

I’ve seen men with beards for their entire adult life, so I don’t think 6-7 years is THAT long, in the grand scale of things. My uncle has had a beard since he was 20… he looks almost identical in every photo… how dull!

Here is a run down (in Yiddish) of how things will go for you.
Being a goy (someone not of Jewish faith) you will most likely be entertained by the little yarmulke you get to wear and how exactly it stays on your head. People will talk about what a mensch (good man) your uncle was and you’ll schmooze (i think you know this one) with your mishpocha (extended family.) You can cry oy vey (interjection for grief) as you blow your schnozz (nose) on a schmatte (kleenex). After all is said and done, you can go and get shickered (drunk). As you nosh (snack) on your lox (smoked salmon) and bagels with schmeer (spread), you will kvell (feel proud and well up with tears) about what a heimish (friendly) man your uncle was.

Hope that lesson in yiddish was helpful and enlightening=)

and yes, the yarmmulkes are typically handed out at the door. Put them on before you enter the synagogue as a reminder that the big guy is above you.

Sebastian: for future refference posting pictures of yourself rewards quite a bit of comments… it took forever to get here!

I think the stubble is very good, and that you should always listen to my opinions! You are deffinitely a good looking Brit (although I suspect you already know this as your infatuation with self-portraits would tend to imply.)

Shaving everything would require the thing I hate most… shaving. So you’ll have to live with stubble! Or a beard! And I think we agree that stubble is better, right?

I enjoy taking self portraits because I always travel alone, Ambles. Almost all of my self portraits were taken in other countries! (I’m talking about the ones on my About page — the ones in the photo gallery were obviously posed… but I was bored and we had no electricity…)

I know I’m OK-looking; nothing special. I am aware that if I was totally Godawful ugly people wouldn’t swarm around me like some kind of charismatic totem pole.

Bitter — My facial hair is very soft, once it gets longer than a few millimetres…! Previous girlfriends have never complained (and I’ve always has facial hair for as long as I’ve had girlfriends!)

I’ll get some more of the ‘Jesus is coming’ pictures online later… There’s one that looks almost orgasmic… Or rapture-tastic…

Onur, my left hand looks… crippled. Like a big claw. Most of my left hand has burned away, after 4 years of solid, non-stop gaming, so I’ve had it replaced with a prosthetic limb. I have carbon-fibre fingers. That’s why I’m so good.

Why so much love for #5? People like the bolshy ‘I don’t want to be sitting here’ look?

One of my uni friends made the mistake of dying his beard for a show once, only to disocver too late it was the kind of dye that doens’t wash out, so he had to shave it all off. He seriously looked like he was 12 years old, even though he was in his early 20s. He looked a year older each day as it grew back. At 30 we finally let him shave again, and how at 35 he actually looks quite respectable, as well as old enough to be holding that PhD.

P.S. I was not trying to imply that you are overly-vain…. that would be another one of those situations where I would be condemning you for something I already do! If I knew you were going to be so sensitive about it….

Alison, I was actually told that you are meant to not shave after the news of someone’s death. You are meant to appear at the funeral unshaven/unkempt, to show that you’ve spent time mourning, rather than making yourself look pretty!

So, of course, me and my cousin (the one you know, who is now my new uncle, we’ve decided) both sported rather trendy designer stubble…

Josie, if I knew how to change monsters, I would’ve done it long ago. I think some site called ‘gravatar’ does it for me. I’d love something a bit more exciting; two mouths is a bit… excessive. Looks like a bit of drool, too… Let me know if you find out how to fix it!

You hardly over-flaunt yourself, Ambles. You recently posted the first picture of yourself EVER… that’s hardly vanity. Even if you did change your avatar to something rather dorky and cute. Well, more dorky…

Thanks Gary! Did you share a picture of yourself yet? My beard didn’t complete itself until I was 19 or so; always had a little gap at the side… and then it grew in, with some delightfully ginger hair… I met my cousin today, he’s 25, and he has about a centimeter missing right under his nose, like an inverse-Hitler. It’s cute though!

I can thoroughly recommend the half-beard if your roommate is into roleplaying, or if he’s just a bit bi-polar….

Dang. You look hot with less beard/stubble. I might have had a crush on you when you visited… actually no – you had a girlfriend at the time and I have this internal mental thing where taken boys are automatically not hot…

But yeah. Stubble good. Well, not beard in general is good. (An your eyes do seem more prominent.) I can actually see your jawline and it is pretty good! (Ok, I better stop before I embarrass myself more than I probably already have.)

I programmed myself to find taken boys unattractive. At least when I am aware that they are taken. I had two really bad crushes on taken guys (Junior High, then early High School) and then realized that it was really stupid since they obviously did not care about my existence.